Dam Safety is Priority One at Boone Dam

Boone Dam is monitored for safety 24 hours a day. The dam safety inspection program includes dam safety inspectors and engineers who walk miles in a day, checking slope inclinometers (instruments that monitor subsurface movement), piezometers (instruments that measure water pressure), survey monuments and water quality monitoring stations. They provide a visual, human inspection that supplements the network of more than 200 automated instruments located throughout the dam. If changes are detected above a certain threshold, the instruments automatically send text messages and emails to members of the dam safety inspection team.

“The dam safety inspectors provide ‘boots on the ground’ to help identify in real-time any changing conditions at Boone Dam,” says TVA dam safety inspection lead Veronica Barredo (pictured above examining instruments on the upstream side of the earthen embankment). Adding one more layer of scrutiny, divers enter the water for periodic underwater visual inspections of the dam’s filter berm.Progress Update: Our Boone Dam neighbors should notice an increase in construction activity over the next few weeks as contractors and drill rigs move back onsite for some additional testing of the effectiveness of drilling and grouting work to date. Upstream berm construction is scheduled to begin in August.